


what's left unsaid

by torigates



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At first they don’t talk about what happened between them</p>
            </blockquote>





	what's left unsaid

  
At first they don’t talk about what happened between them, what with Katherine’s appearance, and the news that Klaus had taken Stefan with him, Elena’s attention was focused in other areas. Everyone, Damon included, keep promising her that they would find Stefan and bring him back. “We’ll get him back,” they kept saying until the words began to ring in her head like a mantra.

Get him back, get him back.

Elena didn’t see how it was possible. They had nearly killed themselves trying to bring him down once, and that was with Elijah’s help. The cost had been high and they had failed. They failed when it mattered most, and now Stefan was gone and Elena didn’t see how they _could_ get him back when they had no way of knowing where he had gone.

It wasn’t hopeless—Elena knew that Stefan was strong, and the two of them had been preparing for this. She wasn’t about to give up on him anytime soon, but she was starting to realise that until they had a solid lead, she was just going to have to trust Stefan.

Damon had never been good at relinquishing control—had never _had_ to, not since Katherine. Part of Elena thought that was the reason he seemed to see out so much chaos in his life. It was if by making things as crazy as he could, Damon could somehow control them.

Elena knew that ever since she’d entered Stefan’s life (and therefore Damon’s) things had been less and less within Damon’s grasp. He didn’t deal well with that.

They were at the house. Elena knew, rationally, that she should think of it as _her_ house, but she couldn’t. It would always be Stefan and Damon’s house, just like her parents’ house would always be her parents’ house. Damon was pacing back and forth across the sitting room. They were waiting for Bonnie, Jeremy, and Ric to get back.

Bonnie had found a new spell that she thought might help them trace Stefan, so the three of them had gone to the witches’ house to rest it out. Damon wanted to go with them, but Bonnie just reminded him what happened last time. Elena volunteered to keep an eye on him while they were gone.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” he mumbled.

Everyone just stared at him until he raised his hands in defeat.

Elena hugged Bonnie and Jeremy and told them to be careful. Bonnie promised they would. Elena watched them go from the door, wishing it wasn’t part of her life to always watch the people she loved leave her, always having to hope they would come home safe.

Damon was sulking in the sitting room, and refused to see them off.

When they were gone, Elena walked back slowly through the halls, running her hands along the walls, and concentrating on her breathing. There was a tight ball of anxiety in the pit of her stomach, and she thought, if she could just count the number of her breaths she could trick her body in to relaxing.

She picked a book off the shelf aimlessly, and sat down to wait. The words on the page blurred, and Elena read the same sentence six times before she realised she wasn’t going to absorb any of it.

“How can you just _sit_ there?” Damon asked.

Elena shrugged, and Damon continued to pace back and forth.

She sat there because she had to. She sat there because there was nothing she could do in that moment except for allow the people who had the power to help to do their jobs. It was all she could do. “We’re doing what we can,” she said simply.

He growled in frustration. “We’re not doing _enough_.”

The simple truth of the matter was they were doing all they could. They were doing everything in their power and it still wasn’t enough. Not when faced with Klaus.

Elena understood Damon’s frustration. Stefan had stopped at nothing to keep both of them safe; sacrificing himself again and again, and when he needed them most they were unable to come through for him. When Stefan had needed them most they had been together, and not with him.

Elena understood Damon’s frustration.

It was strange.

Damon’s feelings for Elena had never been a secret. Although Damon never admitted how he felt until now, Elena had always known. Stefan had always known, but it had never been an issue. Elena was with Stefan. She loved Stefan.

She cared about Damon too.

She felt guilty.

Not for caring about Damon. Not even for kissing him, offering him her comfort and forgiveness. She knew Stefan would understand those things. He even wanted those things. Stefan and Elena wanted the same things when it came to Damon.

She just felt—guilty.

She suspected Damon felt the same way, but as much as he carried his emotions on his sleeve, it was always hard to tell with him.

She thought maybe they both just felt helpless. Wrong. Incomplete without Stefan. Katherine liked to talk about how Elena, and Katherine had come between these brothers, but the more time she spent with the two of them, the more Elena began to realise that wasn’t the case. Elena had been drawn to Stefan, but she had been drawn in by Damon too. Both brothers had pulled her in and captivated her. She suspected the same was true of Katherine. Elena couldn’t help but be attracted to them, their intense love for her and each other. She wondered sometimes, how much Damon really loved her, and how much he just wanted to be a part of Stefan’s life.

That was the thing about Stefan; he was steady, sure. He made things easier just by being around. Elena knew how much she depended on that, and as much as Damon tried to deny it, he obviously did too.

They both needed him there—and for once—he wasn’t.

She calmly shut her book, and placed it on the armrest beside her, before standing and walking across the room to face Damon.

“We’ll get him back,” she said. Damon wouldn’t look at her. She put her hand on his shoulder, and he turned to face her. “We’ll get him back.”

It was the first time she really believed it.


End file.
